Badminton Smash Technique

Published December 2, 2017

Most beginner badminton players are not able to play badminton smash well. Commonly they have difficulty in producing powerful and accurate smash. Certainly, smash shot would be a lethal weapon if it has power, speed and well executed. It can be played both on the forehand and backhand side.

There are two important things that determine shot effectiveness in badminton smash, i.e. the angle and steepness of the shuttlecock’s trajectory. The steeper angle of the trajectory, the more difficult to be returned by your opponent because he/she will not have enough time to react.

Jump smash, jump and hit the shuttle in the same time, is a common way to create kind of smash.

Forehand Badminton Smash

This kind of smash is easier than backhand badminton smash.

Following are guidance to create powerful and steep smash :
a. Hold your racket using forehand grip
b. Set your position to stand sideways to the net with non-racket shoulder facing to the net, one foot at front and another at rear (if you righthanded player then left foot will be at front and right foot at rear). Shift your weight on to rear foot
c. Bend your elbow and prepare your wrist to swing forward, as well. Don’t hold the grip tightly before hitting the shuttlecock. You may utilize your non-racket hand to obtain right timing and good balance by raising and aiming it to the incoming shuttlecock as seen on 2nd step of the figure above
d. Rotate your grip about ten degree to left for righthanded player or rotate to right for lefthanded player otherwise you are not able to create powerful smash but slice stroke
e. Straighten your elbow and swing it as if you were throwing the racket and at the same time, if you don’t play jumping smash, start moving your rear foot to front
f. Hit the shuttlecock as high as possible and in front of your body. You have to determine the right timing to hit in order to land the shuttlecock in the center of string bed to produce powerful smash
g. Snap down your wrist rapidly so that the shuttlecock will get extra power as well as angle towards the opponent’s court and follow through the swing
h. As your rear foot shift to front, you should shift your weight to front foot
i. After finishing the smash shot, move back to your base position immediately

Backhand Badminton Smash

Definitely, this is difficult smash to play. Although you have both great strength and good technique, it does not mean you have already had excellent shot. Even many world class players don’t have great backhand smash. In my opinion, the best skill of backhand smash is owned by Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia.

The backhand badminton smash should be attempted by experienced players who have obtained significant experience and training. However, you must know how to play backhand smash since you may find a circumstance that you are not able to play the shuttlecock with forehand. Another advantage is the backhand technique can help transition from a defensive situation back into offensive.
backhand sequence

Following are guidance for playing backhand badminton smash :
a. Hold your racket using backhand grip. The palm and the racket handle has a larger spacing between
b. As the forehand smash, the contact point must be high
c. Turn your body so that your back is facing the net leading with the racket foot leg
d. Pull up your elbow first, stabilize it then forearm leads the wrist and racket. Use the thumb to push the racket for extra power
e. Swing fast to create explosive power
f. Flick down your wrist powerfully at the shuttle. Remember that the power is in wrist not elbow. In the process of hitting, the body and feet naturally return to ready position
g. Do not need to follow through the swing

Jump Smash

For this badminton smash, I would like to refer a guidance of Liao Guo Mao which you can find the video below. He said that the jump smash is an advanced level smash. Adding the jump elemet only when the former is mastered. If you try to play the jump smash before mastering
the on-the-spot smash you can easily be injured and also find learning to play the the jump smash difficult.
jump smashjpg
Here are his guideline to play jump smash :
1. Move quickly to the best position. the 1st step when playing a jump smash : judge where the shuttlecock will land and move quickly to the position to strike it
2. Crouch slightly to lower your center of gravity and prepare to jump off the floor
3. Jumping up and backswing. After jumping up, the racket side shoulder should be brought back and at the same time force exerted from the waist as you carry out the power accumulation and swing action
4. Rotate your upper body and strike the shuttlecock
5. When your jump reaches the highest point. Rotate your upper body using the power of the waist and carry the racket hand quickly forward to strike the shuttlecock when the shuttlecock is hit, try to make sure the racket head hits the shuttlecock head fill on give maximum speed and power